Planning, scheduling,
and controlling a project effectively

Network planning is a technique that is helpful in planning, scheduling, and controlling
the projects that consists of many interrelated activities. Two network planning
techniques are developed in 1950s they are..

CPM
is akin to PERT; it was developed independently by Du Pont Company in the US to
solve scheduling problems. CPM is primarily concerned with cost and time. It has
been applied in many projects, Research and development program, starting a new
venture etc. The common characteristics of PERT and CPM techniques are,

1.
The project can be broken down into well-defined set of jobs or activities.2.
The activities must be performed in a certain sequence.3. Within a defined
s sequence the activity should be started and stopped.

Other
forms of network planning network-planning techniques have been developed since
then they are..

Network
planning techniques are often compared with somewhat familiar tool known as Gantt
chart. This is an older planning and scheduling tool, however it remains popular
because of its simplicity. The Gantt chart combines two functions planning and
scheduling. With the Gantt charts, the scheduling of activities occurs simultaneously
with their planning. The person drawing the activity lines or bars must be aware
of the interrelationships of the activities that is the activities must be finished
before the others start and which activities can be performed concurrently.

One
of the major drawbacks of Gantt chart is that it does not graphical display the
interrelationship of activities. However, most project management software packages
can produce Gantt charts that display the interdependencies among the tasks by
connecting arrows. Because planning and scheduling are done simultaneously in
the traditional Gantt chart, it is cumbersome to make changes to the plan manually.

Network techniques,
on the other hand, separate planning and scheduling functions. A network diagram
is the result, or the output, of the planning function and is not drawn to a tome
scale. The network diagram is also referred as project graph, which shows activities
and events of the project and their logical relationship.

Time
Estimation in network diagram:

1.
Optimistic time2. Most likely time3. Pessimistic time

Network
principles: There are different formats used in the drawing the network diagram

1.Activity in the box (AIB) 2.Activity on the arrow (AOA)

Activities
have a precedential relationship i.e. they are linked in a precedential order
to show which activities must be finished before others can start. AN activity
cannot start until all of the preceding activities that are linked to it by arrows
are completed.

Preparing
a network diagram:

First
select the format to be used, next start drawing the activities in their logical
precedential order, as the project should progress from initiation to completion.
When deciding the sequence in which the activities should be drawn to their logical
precedential relationship to one another, you should ask the following questions
to be asked regarding each activity.

1.
Which activities must be done finished immediately before the other activity starts?2.
Which activities should be run concurrently?3. Which activities cannot be
started until other activity is finished?

Guidelines
for drawing detailed network diagram:

1.
Activities should be identified for each package2. Preferable to draw a summary-level
network first diagram3. Level of details should be determined4. Activities
should be no longer estimated duration than the time intervals